Back to The Future Agenda?

I was born at the beginning of the "Great Depression". As an infant I slept in a dresser drawer lined with pillows. Pictures I still have prove this. I of course don"t remember. I had loving parents and two younger brothers to play with. I really didn't feel deprived or "poor". But as I got a few years older in the middle 1930s, and saw what was happening to many friends families in my North West Side of Milwaukee home. I did begin to understand the enormity of the misery our Country was going through. "Bank holidays" and massive unemployment, home forclosures were just a few of the many effects of Depression I was witness to.

Now the Congress of the United States with the aid of our President may be taking the steps backward toward the dreaded bankruptcy of this great Country of ours. No, not next year or ten years from now, but possibly by 2040 we will be "back to the future". We won't be transported in a magical car as young McFly did in the popular movie "Back to The Future". Nor will we be able to hop back into that car and return to the good days before the impending "crash".

How you ask is this going to happen? The present proposals in the Senate, and unfortunately not disapproved of by President Bush, for laws granting "amnesty" to over twenty million illegal aliens is a large step toward accelerating the time of insolvency of the social security program and the whole welfare state as it is presently funded. Predictions by Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation estimate that giving amnesty to just 60% to 80% of the present illegals will add 11.4 to 16 billion dollars annually to the cost of welfare. Most of this burden on tax payers will be for needed emergency room and hospital costs for the new aliens made legal by amnesty.

In the past five years Medicaid has grown 50% in people eligible. Food stamp recipients has grown 49% and Pell grants have grown 35%. Earned income tax credit program subsidies to 21 million people has leaped to thirty-five (35) billion dollars annually! Much Of this has to be caused by the huge illegal population.

Most respected economists predict that with our current rate of disbursements for benefits staying constant, and income the government takes from our paychecks now to pay for the benefits not being raised by increased taxes. The social security system will collapse by 2040. What do think will happen to the time line for insolvency if we pour another 18-20 million "amnestyed" illegals into the system?

Yet the liberal media and too many members of Congress hope this will happen. After all, following the great depression, the Democrats controled Congress and the White House for forty years! I think many of them want to take us "back to the future!"

Why else would you see in this weeks news a poll done by the New York Times and CBS and widely circulated in the Liberal media that says: 59% of Americans favor more immigrants, 61% wants illegals who lived and worked in the USA for 2 years be given citizenship, and 66% oppose a fence on the border between Mexico and the US.

Where did they take the poll? In Los Angeles California with over 70% Latino population? Thomas Sowell, whom I respect a great deal more than anyone associated with the NYT or CBS, reports in today's "Town Hall", that the "top priority for most polled Americans is for the government to control our borders. How else but with a fence will we do it. The "catch and release policy" being used presently won't do it. Soldiers up and down the border will either capture or shoot alliens trying to cross over from Mexico to the USA. This is not the humane way. A fence provides the best deterrent. Not the solution. Any solution enacted has to include draconian measures such as cutting off all aid to illegals except life saving care.

If we don't solve this problem I am sure the Democrats will get their hold on the government, and socialism will surely follow.

Time to Raise the White Flag?

In 2000 I had no hesitation in entering the voting booth to vote for George Bush for President. My hopes and dreams for This wonderful country assured me that he would be a good choice to lead "Us" in the battle for Conservative principles and laws.
In 2004 after all the increased spending passed by a Republican controlled Congress, and not vetoed by President Bush. The many other "compromises made with congressional liberals all led me to doubt that I had voted correctly in 2000. But with the war in Iraq being successfully waged against one of the major proponents of Radical Muslim terror against America. I had no doubt that the sitting President would do a better job then the Democratic nominee, Senator Kerry, for all the obvious reasons.
In 2006 I still support what our Government is doing in the war on Radical Muslim Terrorism, despite the casualty rate of our brave soldiers. No war is fought without loosing too many brave military personal! The problem I have, and apparently from the latest polls, most Americans have, Is the way President Bush and his administration is Handling too many domestic issues.
Immigration is foremost. I am sure any prominent politician who ran on a "ticket" of strong border enforcement and effectively stopping the tidal wave of illegal immigrants from Mexico, would if not win surely make a very good showing in 2008. President Bush and his advisers have not even stopped the bureaucrats who run the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from ignoring the will of the people by having a policy of "capture and release" for all illegal aliens caught crossing our border from Mexico. Billions of dollars have been appropriated to fund DHS and unfortunately they are not doing their job. How many potential terrorists have bee caught and released. While this is going on. Michelle Malkin reports in here article today that Homeland Security executive staffers in Washington are driven around Washington in "Shillington limousine" Vans and sedans at a tax payer cost of over six (6) million dollars a year. And by the way this service owner, who has a five (5) year contract with the government has a "Rap" sheet 64 pages long with numerous felonies and misdemeanors.
And what is even more outrageous is the border guards who are supposed to stop and arrest the illegals crossing the border. Are reporting to the Mexican government the names of the "Minutemen" volunteers who are trying desperately and at no cost to the taxpayers to apprehend the illegals.
This is happening while Democrats and Republicans together are trying to pass a "Guest Worker" bill. If passed it will most probably be ignored by bureaucrats who are paid to enforce the law, but prefer the "open Border" policy. It would help if our President listened to the majority that elected him and not whomever or whatever is leading him to further disfavor with the disgruntled
"silent majority". Will we hold our nose and vote Republican in 2006 and 2008? Or will we throw the "buggers" out and take our chances with the "Socialist" Democrats?
I will hold my nose and vote a straight ticket as I always have despite my extreme disillusionment with President Bush and his Administration.

Just Another Late Payment Penalty?

We Americans are used to being financially penalized for failing to pay our monthly credit card minimum payment on time. Late payment of a home mortgage usually results in a monetary penalty. Late payment fees for car payments, and many other forms of monthly payment have become part of our lives for many of us. We know that the biggest penalty we can certainly incur is the one that the government charges for late payment of our income tax, unless an extension has been filed with the IRS.
Now we have a new wrinkle in government penalties. The fine for late sign up for the Medicare Prescription Plan. The deadline for enrolling in the Congressional approved Medicare Prescription Plan is next Monday. If people presently enrolled in Medicare don't sign up for the new "Plan" a financial penalty will be applied and will grow larger each month that the Medicare eligible Senior Citizen delays enrollment. This provision is very punitive for people who still wonder if this Plan will be best for their needs. People who are supposed to be recipients of governmental largesse, will be actually punished financially if they don't join now.
The first thing that comes to mind when I read that our President is "stumping" Florida encouraging seniors to join before Monday. Is the words "adverse selection".
Apparently the close to 1000 meetings in States around the US with senior citizens by government officials is to enroll enough more seniors to prevent a situation in which only those who will use this Plan join. Reduce the chance of "adverse selection."
Having spent over ten (10) years in the Health Insurance Industry as a mid-level executive. I am very familiar with the effect of "adverse selection". All Plans are actuarially designed with the purpose of preventing the pool of members from being only users. For a Plan to survive financially the premiums collected must not be less than the amount of money paid out to providers for services or products. This is most certainly the reason why President Bush is not only visiting Florida Senior Citizens, but also refuses to consider extending the deadline for sign ups without late "Fines." He and the Medicare officials are probably worried "adverse selection" could doom the Medicare Prescription Plan before it gets "off the ground."If this happens many of the "providers" signed up to provide the discounted prescription drugs will certainly loose money and may withdraw from the plan. This will reduce Seniors choice of provider pharmacies. I hope this won't happen, but it could!

Fuzzy Headed Actions and Proposals

Recently in an article posted on the web that I read about Eric Schlosser and Paul Hawkens' "Crusade against Fast Food giant McDonalds" . The two were quoted as saying":fast foods are bad for middle school students". And because of the Fast Food Industry advertising blitz on TV they are "attempting to control behavior of children." The implication being that the government needs to do something about this to control the growing obesity of Americas children. It is true we Americans are getting fatter each year. I personally can attest to the truth of this problem.
The problems I have with this approach are both constitutional based and fact based.
First, where do we stop with the taking away of freedom of speech. Are Liberals like Schlosser and Hawken happy to stop "Big Mac" and their competitors from producing adds that promote their product? Or will they go after the grocery store giants whose delicatessen sell most of the fried foods found in McNuggets and cheeseburgers? After all the sound and fury has settled down let me remind these "geniuses" that the most common childhood disease for children aged 1-6 is not obesity but dental caries! It also has a devastating effect of pain and suffering not to mention cost on teenagers, but thanks to fluoridation caries rates inteenagers has been reduced. Why don't you hear more advocates for policing what our children eat attacking the adds of cereal companies, and companies selling soft drink and fruit juices loaded with sugar? Sugar consumption by small children is the main dietary variable in dental caries destruction of childrens' teeth. This statistic is reported in "American Family Physician" and supported by the Academy of Family Physicians.Maybe I am getting ahead of myself. I may be predicting the future agenda for these "eggheads". But what has happened to the constitutional freedom to do what you want as long as it is lawful? Maybe they are thinking ahead to the Marxist/ Socialist country many of our so called "academia",and their "fellow travelers" have in their minds for the future of our Country?
My second surprise was the failure of CNNs Anderson Hays Cooper to be the succesful replacemwnt anchor of CNN in place of fired Aaron Brown. His ratings are much lower than Mr. Browns ever were. I have always jokingly referred to my family that CNN should be called the "Communist Sympathizer News Network". And now they hired a progeny of Gloria Vanderbilt who went to the University of Hanoi to study Vietnamese!
Are their no Universities in The U.S. or South Vietnam that teach the Vietnamese language? Or did he go there because he felt comfortable in the company of people whose countrymen killed 55,000 American soldiers? Maybe viewers think about it when they watched him on CNN!